save 11 episode 01

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

1/28

EPISODE01: The Phantom MagazineNEW ZEALAND's own SWM V-mag: December 2011

Star Wars Miniatures Explained!F o r N e w P l a y e r s a n d W i v e s A l i k e . . .

Vsets: The Future of SWMH o w d o e s V i r t u a l S W M w o r k ?We Start Our Very Own SWM Mag

L e t s s e e h o w t h a t w o r k s f o r u s , s h a l l w e ? !

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

2/28

B A S E S T A T S

So,wereabouttohitth

esilly

season, endless work

bar-

beques(thatswhatyou

doin

aNZsummer)and

Christmas

shopping...then rockinto a

newyear,newjobs,new

pros-

pects, new challenges

- so

why,we decidedto as

k our-

selves,whynotaddinm

aking

aVirtual Magazine an

d see

what happens.Whyth

e hell

not?

Well,asforourreasons

,well

talkaboutthatat lengt

hfur-

therupandfurtherin,b

utfor

now let me personallywel-

comeyoutoourlittlesliceof

the SWMworld. Dont

know

whereyouve comefro

m ex-

actly,butwhereverthat

isand

whatever level ofthe

game

youre atwehopeyou

enjoy

this.Wedont proffess

tobe

expertsorproffesstob

eany

goodatmagazinelayout

s,but

we do proffessto be

rather

mad. A prerequisitfor

SWM,

dontyouthink?

Anyhoo,readon,readi

nand

beapartofourSave11

good-

ness.Mayyoubeenter

tained

and enlightened abo

ut the

gamewe call the bea

utiful

game...oh,wait-that

sfoot-

ball,isntit...

Mauriora,maurim

ate!

kez/kezza/kerry/k-dawg

...

[email protected]

Every Saga Has a B

eginning .. .F R O

M T H E EDIT O R :

P A G E 2

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

3/28

B A S E S T A T S

tion/order and well contibuteas a group. The recommendeddonation is $20US for Venge-ance, $5US for Brawl and, ofcourse, $25US for both. Then,when the sets are distributed,the NZ order gets sent to Kez-za and hell in turn get it toyou. Uber-easy.

Yes - you can wait for thedownload to become avail-able and save yourself thedollars, but once youve heldthose cards in your hands,youll think twice, let me tellyou...

Contact kezza NOW!

Well, to answer the rst ques-tion in your head: a Regionalis a region-wide SWM tourna-ment in the States. They usu-ally have about 15-20 Region-als in the US before the lastbig tournament at GenCon(the SWM Mecca).

Our aim is to tie into that proc-ess and host for the rst timeever a New Zealand SWMtournament - a NZ Regionalof sorts. Were in talks at the

moment about the locationand how we can host it, andIve had some conversationswith the US guys over the lastyear about them supportingus in any way they can - whichmeans that we feel pretty con-dent that come mid-2012,well be rolling that d20.

The big challenge is lettingNZ folk know! If you can helpput us in contact with NZSWMers, contact [email protected]. Do it!

...And big congratulations toGraham who walked awaythe triple winner. Not only didhe defend his HweraCon ti-tle, andtake back the Save11Sheild(s), but he also man-aged to leap up to #1 in therankings to his personal bestscore of 247 ranking points.

For those who may notknow, HweraCon is oneof the two big Majorson the Save11 circuit (the

other being LowerHuttaCon)which we hold annually. Wellgive you a better run downon the day further on in themag, but for now - kudosGraham. Kudos.

Thats right, Vset 3 - the60-piece Vengeance and thethemed 12-piece set of theCantina Brawl - are hittingthe Virtual stores come Feb-ruary of 2012. As per the lasttwo Vsets, funding informa-tion is now up on both Gam-ers and Bloomilk, and as perour last efforts, Save11 willbe collectively donating andgetting in some of those awe-some printed cards.

How it works for us Save11 NZfolk is that you will now [email protected]

and hell add you to the dona-

Well, as everything is new (asweve never done it before),this is where well try and laydown any interesting bits ofnews that come to hand. Itcould be local, it could benational, heck - it could evenbe international - but welldo our best to keep you in-

formed about things inthe game. Cool?

Now, we are calling itour news section... Iknow thats rather controver-sial. I can just hear some folksaying isnt it in good StarWars tradition to be calledthe holonet or somethin?.Well, yes, but I have to showthis to my wife at some pointand holonet is just a touch

too geeky for that. One stepat a time...

P A G E 3

The Renegades and Rogues Virtual Set (out of SWMgamers.com) was the second Vset released (more on that later), andthis artwork - done by our very own Save11 artists - was selected to represent the 60-piece set.

artby:KerryLogan

N e w s , N e w s ,N e w s . . .

H w e r a C o ni s O v e r !

T h e V s e t s a r e b a c k w i t ha V e n g e a n c e . . . A N e w Z e a l a n d R e g i o n a l

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

4/28

B A S E S T A T S

P A G E 4

Well, the short answer is:youre looking at it. The longanswer is, well, longer.

Save11 started out as a namethat we used to signify our

own local playgroups - thatis namely Lower Hutt andHwera in New Zealand (andthe few stragglers that heldon to us). The name - obvi-ously taken from the SWMgame - was then printed ona T-shirt that Holmes (one ofour American New Zealand-ers) gave to Kezza for hisbirthday. It sounded so catch-ey as a name, it stuck - andweve been Save11 ever since.

But what is it now? Well, acoupla weeks ago (at thedate of writing this) we came

up with the idea to compileresources for our group in theform of a ash looking .pdf(chiey so I could practice myAdobe InDesign skills). Theidea grew from there into a

tool that we could use to growthe game in NZ and entertainbeyond that.

Heres our goals and priorities:1) Give SWM resources to ourown Save11 crew. That is, tips,rules, new characters/squadideas, where to nd stuff onthe interweb (is that thing stillaround?!) and much more. 2)Grow the game in NZ. ThereARE other players out there -we need to nd them and letthem know about Vsets, newmaps, how THIS GAME IS NOTDEAD. Can I get an amen? and

3) Entertain any outer-NZ folkthat happen upon this slice ofthe NZ game. Good on youguys for attempting to under-stand NZ humour (notice howI spelt it with an extra u?) - its

not that easy. I dont even un-derstand it half the time. But,perhaps there are other rea-sons for that...

Anyhoo - welcome to theworld that is NZ SWM. Wher-ever you are and whateveryour understanding of SWMis, come on in. If you want tocontribute to what we do, fan-bloody-tastic! As long as youcan t in wi the 3 goals wehave in here, bring it.

Mauri ora, mauri mate!

W H A T I S S A V E 1 1 ?

W H O I S S A V E 1 1 ?

by kezzamachine

also by kezzamachine (honestly!)

So, now that you have a bitmore of an understanding asto what exactly youre lookingat, next is the who - who weare as a group.

At this stage, Im just not surehow big the New Zealandgame is. I know theres a 20-25 person group in Welling-ton that play out of the Pul-sar Max store there (good onya, guys!) and I think theresa group in Auckland, and Iknow of a few folk scatteredaround... but APART from that

25-30 folk, we (Save11 NZ)

are it in this country. We aredivided into two main groups:Lower Hutt and Hwera, witha few scattered around about.

Lower Hutt (just north of thecapital Wellington) has about15-20 folk on their books -and were right in the middleof our Hutt Regional league(to nd 2011s Hutt Champ)and that has 16 players in itincluding myself, theHutts,Sharron and Savage Ran-cor (for those of you on theBlooMilk boards).

Hwera (on the west coast,about half way up the NorthIsland) currently has 4 play-ers - although they are a very,very tough 4. Again, BlooMilkis graced by KFCs Waiting foryou.

After that we have Darth O inNapier, Rich is Hamilton and afew folk scattered about plan-et Earth. That is us!

Well, thats the what andthe who covered. That onlyleaves the how, when,

where and why...

The groupat LowerHu

ttaCon2010: Graham (t

heHutts), Aaron (Sharro

n), Robin (SavageRanco

r),Ian,

Dave,Alan(behindDave

),Bob(KFCs),Mike,Bev,

kezzamachine(kneeling

),Andrew,HenkoandD

anny.

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

5/28

B A S E S T A T S

P A G E 5

The setting The Mos Eisley

Cantina. Han Solo is sitting ina rather familiar booth, twirl-ing his blaster between his n-

gers, looking lost in thought.Chewbacca sits opposite, pick-ing the remnants of someboiled womp rat from betweenhis teeth with his claws.

Chewie moans suddenly,above the din of the cantinaband playing that song. Han

seems to snap out of his rev-erie, and looks at his woundedcolleague.

Han: I know buddy, I know!

Im sick of this tune as well. IfI had a credit for every time Ihad to bob my head to its jazztheme, I could settle this di-vorce with Leia and y my assto the Bakura system.

Chewie: Raargh.

H: What? No, its not the mu-sic thats getting me down. Ican always block that out. Orblast it out. Its this other stuffthats going on. You know.The stuff that no one wants totalk about. (Han glances over

his shoulder, and leans closeracross the table, speaking in ahushed voice) You know. There-writes.

C: Raargh?

H: Ah cmon Chewie, dont actthe big hairy coy wookie withme on this! Everyone knowswhat were talking about, butno one wants to complain

about it!At the exact point of Hans out-burst, the band nishes a song,leaving Hans words ringingaround the bar. Several pairsof eyes glance over at the ta-ble, but most dip their headsinto their drinks, as if nothinghappened. Most that is, apartfrom two Stormtroopers, whowander over to the table.

Stormtrooper 1: Is every-

thing alright here? Nothingbothering you about this es-tablishment?

H: No sir, nothing wrong withthis place.

ST1: I hope not buddy. Cosif you got a problem with thismusic, you got a problem withme. I went down the aisle tothis tune! On the Death Star!Sure, that aisle got blown tokriff when some pansy asscommanders let a bunch ofgirl scouts in X Wings destroythe Death Star

Han: again

ST1: What did you say?

Han: Nothing.

ST1: Thats what I thought.Any way. Where was I? Ohyeah. Keep your voice down.The next band are on soon.And theyre playing the samesong till 2am. Its a jazznumber. You might know it.

Jerk.

The Stormtroopers walk off,joking about the music anddancing with jazz hands.Hans smile turns to a grimace.He clutches his head, and looksdespairingly at Chewie

H: You see what I mean Chew-ie? Its all changed. 20 yearsago those punks wouldnt

have dared walked into thisplace, let alone threaten me.And its all because of the re-writes.

C: Raargh?

H: You know what I mean.The constant tinkering thatLord Lucas is doing to this se-ries! Its watering me down,watering the whole experi-ence down!

C: Raargh.

H: Look. It was in this veryseat that I introduced my-self to millions of people.Remember? That bountyhunter Greedo had me deadto rights. I distract him with alittle David Blaine hand move-ment, and then blast a hole inhim the size of Jupiter.

C: Raargh.

H: Exactly. I red rst and

smoked that sucker, makingme a man not to be messedwith. But that stupid DVD ver-sion comes out, and Lord Lu-cas has Greedo shooting rst.So I re in self-defence. Self-defence isnt bad ass! Shoot-ing rst, being merciless andsaying mean things to blondefarm boys is! And what thehell was Greedo aiming at?!The cockroaches?

C: Raargh.H: And that aint all. Im read-

ing the script for the new ed-its, and youll never believewhats in-store. You knowthat scene where Im about toget put in the carbonate, andLeia says I love you! And Isay I know.

C: Raargh.

H: Well Im shooting the re-write tomorrow, and I have to

replace I know with some lyr-ics from Coldplay! Somethingabout tears and waterfalls!Can you believe that banth-poodoo?! I dont care if Lu-cass daughter is a big fan

C: Raargh!!

H: Chewie, calm down! Ididnt know you were a bigfan too! Look, if its any con-solation, Im ying Coldplay tothe royal palace for a gig next

week. Ill get their autographsfor you. [Whispers] - If I dontaccidently crash into an aster-oid rst

C: Raargh

H: But you see what I mean.What will Lucas change next?No ewoks dying on Endor?Darth Vader going from forcechoke to force hug? The in-famous gold bikini replacedby jeans and Ugg boots?

C: Raaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

H: I know buddy, I know. Still,I need the work. But Im hop-ing there are no more drasticchanges.

C: Actually, there is onechange I should let you knowabout

H: WHAT THECHEWIE!!YOURE SPEAKING ENGLISH!With a slight Australian ac-cent!?

Australian Chewie: Yep.

George got worried that megrowling constantly wouldstart to scare the children.So Ive been taking RosettaStone: English courses andpractising with my good bud-dy, Hugh Jackman. In all hon-esty, I quite like this language!Plus itll let me make a moveon that hot dancer chick atJabbas Palace.

H: ???...

C: Yep, this is something Ivebeen looking forward to for avery long time

H: I bet you have

With that, Han shoots Chewiewith his blaster under the ta-ble. Chewie falls dead onto thetable top, mopping up the spiltbeers in the process. Han getsup to leave.

H: Australian Chewbacca myass. Sorry old friend, but trustme. Its better this way.

Han then turns, and begins topush his way through the bar.When hes at the door, the barman yells out

Barman: What happenedhere?

Han: Nothing. But if anybodyasks - I shot rst.

Mark is one of our good friendsand a wildly gifted writer (forthe love of all that is good,dont tell him we said that!)who does so professionally.He has never played SWM andthinks were a little bit weird...

-kez

by Mark Weir

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

6/28

Star Wars Miniatures is a Col-

lectible Miniatures Game.What, exactly, is that?

Lets start with the easy part-Star Wars is the theme ofthe game. Everything aboutit- characters, settings, etc.- issomething that can be foundin the Star Wars universe, beit in the movies, TV, comics,video games, or books. Thus,while the game can appeal to

all, it perhaps will be enjoyedmore by those who hold acertain fondness for this par-ticular universe.

Moving on- what are mini-atures? As the name implies,miniatures are scaled-downversions of the real thing- inthis case, Star Wars charac-ters, creatures, and vehicles.You make a team of minia-tures- called a squad- and

place them on a map to bat-tle against miniatures on the

opposing squad(s) by using

abilities described on an as-sociated statistics card (eachminiature has such a card).There are many such mini-atures games- Dun-geons & Dragons,Axis & Allies, andWarhammer, to namea few- all have the samebasic premise.

Finally- what makes it collect-

ible? In a normal game, youbuy one package that con-tains all the pieces you needto play. Theres no need to buym o r eand theg a m es t a y ss t a t -ic- the

rules are neither altered, nor

are the number of miniaturesincreased, as time goes on. Acollectible game, on the otherhand, is living. You cant pur-

chase the entire game in onepackage. You need to buya starter pack (containingrules, some miniatures to be-

gin, and maps/dice/countersas necessary), and boosterpacks (containing randomm i n i a t u r e s ,which are un-known to youbeforehand).You build up yourcollection by purchas-ing more of these packs. Fromyour collection of miniatures,you then build a squad toeld against your opponent.In this aspect, its similar tobaseball card collecting, or

collectible card games likeMagic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Pokemon.

So, thats the nature of thegame- now lets discuss themost basic gameplay, to givean idea of how these thingswork.

First, you pick a squad. How?

Look at your miniatures; eachgure has an associated sta-tistics card, which lists its abil-

ities, includingthe cost to eldthat gure.So, you andyour opponentagree upon thesize of a squad

beforehand- common valuesare 100, 150, or 200 points-and then you build a squadusing your miniatures thatadd up to that value. Morepowerful miniatures generally

have a higher cost- for ex-ample, Boba Fett costs

50 points, but a storm-trooper costs only 5. You

pick a squad based on severalfactors- gures that synergizewell, the fac-tion youreu s i n g

(every miniaturehas a faction-Rebel, Im-p e r i a l ,etc, andyou cant mixthem in yoursquad. Yoursquad canconsist only ofgures from

your chosenfaction andFringe g-ures- then e u t r a lcharacters), strategy youreemploying, and your person-al preferences.

After the squads are cho-sen, you and your opponentagree on a map. The gamehas more than a dozen maps;all feature Star Wars locations(like Hoth, Endor, and Tatoo-ine). Maps consist of build-ings, rooms, pits, towers, etc,and have small squares su-perimposed over these fea-tures- squares in which youplace and move your gures.The map you choose hasdifferent room layouts andleads to different options- forthe purposes of introduction

thats all we need mention atthis point.

Now that you havesquads and a map, youboth place characterson the map in squares ofyour choosing (in accord-ance with game rules),make sure you have theircorresponding stat cardsnearby, and youre readyto begin! You alternateusing your gures (ac-tivating them) by mov-

Star Wars Miniatures:A n I n t r o d u c t i o n t o t h e G a m e

by Daniel Ryan (dvryan) (taken from BlooMilk.com)

S P E C I A L A B I L I T I E S

P A G E 6

"What's the big deal?Why are games l ike

this so popular?"

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

7/28


P A G E 7

ing them and attacking, untilevery gure has activated ina given round. Then, a newround begins, and the charac-ters may all activate again. Thisprocess continues until onesquad is completely defeated.

Characters can do damage toeach other by attacking andusing their abilities. Once acharacters received damageexceeds its Hit Points, it is de-feated and removed from themap. As this is an introduction,I wont discuss rules here- thiswas just intended to give youan overall feel for the game.

One nal point- if youre newto the game, or collectible

games in general, you may beasking yourself whats the bigdeal? Why are games like thisso popular? There are twomain reasons:

Strategic Depth. There areseveral aspects to this. Therst aspect: collectible gamesare really two games in one.

The rst game is to design thebest squad you can with the

resources you have. The sec-ond game is executing thatsquad- playing it to reach itsfullest potential. If you fail, orare poor, at either, chances areyoure going to lose. The sec-ond aspect: there are manysuccessful strategies outthere. The way to win is to de-feat your opponents squad,but there are many ways todo so. Do you choose a team

that of smaller characters thatwork well together, use aver-age characters with some de-vious abilities to work in yourfavor, or choose strong, pow-erful characters to destroyyour opponent? Chances are,youll use elements of all ofthese- and the possibilitiesare endless, which leads tothe next reason.

Variety. Typical games (like

Monopoly, Risk, Solitaire, etc)are fun, but can be monoto-nous. Each game is going togo about the same- youll see

the same pieces or cards, justat different times or in dif-ferent combinations. Its stillfun, of course, but collectiblegames have the advantage of

introducing a great deal of va-riety. You pick the pieces; youpick the board. Each pieceintroduces twists to the rulesthat can signicantly changestrategies. And, since new ex-pansions are released severaltimes a year, theres a steadystream of more pieces availa-ble. All this means that no twogames are ever the same; infact, often theyre quite differ-

ent. This fact alone gives thegame quite an appeal.

Now, nothing is without draw-backs. If youre new to this typeof gaming and thinking aboutbecoming involved, know thatcollectible games are quiteexpensive if you plan to beseriously involved in them.Games of this sort also requirea little more attention, as thenew gures released intro-

duce twists you need to knowif youre to remain competi-tive. Finally, its best to makesure you have players in yourarea with whom you can play-there are many good collect-ible games out there, but youcant enjoy them alone.

You can nd the original ar-ticle by Daniel on BlooMilkunder their Article Section.Thanks Daniel for an excellentintroduction to the game!

-kez

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

8/28


P A G E 8

Extinctisth

eDodo

Thisisano

utlineofso

meba-

sicstrateg

iesthatca

nwork

wellinthe

gameplay

element

of tournam

ent compe

tition.

Thereisno

onestrate

gythat

willwinyo

uallyour

games,

every squ

ad wins o

r loses

differently

inthecon

textof

gameplay.Ho

weverther

eare

somebasicfundam

entalsthat

aretruein

mostgamesplaye

d

ofSWM.Le

arningthes

econ-

ceptsand

manipulatin

gthem

canbethe

keytovicto

ry.

Countering

Tempo:

Whenplayi

ngagainst

asquad

runningG

eneralDod

onnaor

SanHillyo

ugenerally

know

thatthesq

uadisusin

gthem

for tem

po contro

l. Another

method for gain

ing tempo

controlis

tojuststraight

up

outnumber the o

pposition.

There a f

ew main reasons

someoner

unstempo

control

inasquad.

Thesquad

theyarep

laying

mayrun t

empo con

trolto

helpmitig

ate a low

activa-

tionsquad

stempodi

sadvan-

tage.Inthi

scaseyou

wantto

goafterG

eneralDod

onnaas

soonasyo

ucansafel

ydoso.

Chancesar

egoodint

hissce-

nariotheothergs

areheavy

costandh

ardtokill.Pickoff

thelowhan

gingfruit.

Bevery

carefuldoin

gthis,don

tover

exposeyou

rselftoth

eirbig

gunsin th

e process.

Most

playersjea

louslyprote

cttheir

Dodo.

Another r

eason so

meone

runstemp

ocontroli

stofa-

cilitate Op

portunist

attacks

(Cananyo

nesayIG-8

6Assas-

sinDroid?)orSwap

mechan-

ics (Grand

Admiral Thrawn,

CaptainPan

aka,orK-3P

O.)In

thisscenar

ioIndit

bestto

pickoff

asmanylow

costgs

aspossibleassoo

naspossi

-

ble.Negate

thetempoadvan

-

tagebykil

lingtheirU

gnaught

Demolitioni

stsandoth

erlow

costgsas

fastaspos

sible.If

theydont

outactiva

teyou,

saygoodb

yetoOpp

ortunist

andendof

theround

swaps

thatcancre

atehugep

layad-

vantagesf

orThrawn

squads

whoalsoh

aveInitiativ

eCon-

trol.

In Summaryif yo

ur oppo-

nentisrun

ningTempocon-

trolhesdo

ingitfora

reason.

Stopthet

empocont

roland

breakhiss

ynergy.Kil

loffas

many(qua

ntity,notq

uality)

ofhisgsa

spossible

earlyin

therst2

rounds.Tho

sewho

strafeand

thegallope

rofthe

gameare

verygood

inthis

role.

Some c

urrent m

etagame

squadsthatuseo

rrelyon

Tempocon

trolare:

B&BThra

wnsquads

andvar-

iationsont

hattheme

General

Grievous,

Droid

ArmyCom

manderIG

-86op-

portun

istsquads

HanSolo

,SmugglerCann

on

Squads(th

isistheonlyoneI

mightKillH

anbeforet

heoth-

eractivatio

nsifpossib

le.)

BASICSTRATEGY10

1byA

aronSlieBro

wn(taken

fromBlooM

ilk.com)

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

9/28

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

10/28


P A G E 1 0

HWERACON2011H o w T h i s S a v e 1 1 M a j o r W e n t D o w n

by kezzamachine and Graham (TheHutts)

The 5th of November beganlike any other day in the smallsleepy town of Hwera, NewZealand (population: 10,000folk and whole lot more cowsincluding a giant statue ofone that greets you uponentering the town from thesouth), but little did this quiethamlet know that descendingupon it would be the heroes

of geekdom coming to freethe townspeople of its non-geekiness...

Hwera is one of the two ma-jor centres in the NZ Save11world, and as such, contrib-utes one of the two majortournaments on the NZ calen-dar - that being HweraCon.Yes, it is in fact just Hwera(the towns name meaningbreath of re!... or rebreath-er?) with the sufx Conshoved on to make it all the

more geekier, but its impor-tance on the Save11 calendaris huge. At the morment it isthe only 150pt tournament -all the others being 200s (savefor a couple of 100pt blasts).

It began a coupla years agoin 2009 with an unofcialtournament (back before weknew just how big this gamewould be for us). The tourna-ment scene for us started in

Hwera so we played HweraRules which meant that the

player who killed the mostpoints in a night won. Bevpipped me by 6pts (scoring283 to my 277) to take theHwera crown after both of uswent 4-1. (We disbanded theoffensive points system afterAaron won the next Tourna-ment despite being 2-3 whileothers were 4-1...)

Wind forward to last year,2010, and we had steppedthings up a bit. HweraConwas now ofcial - it had atrophy and everything! Weplayed 150pts, 8 players, eve-ryone plays everyone. Westarted at 2pm and nishedat 2am, crowning Graham therst ofcial Major title-holder,which cemented his place asone of our top tier players.

This year we stepped up to 10players, as well as scaling back

to 5 rounds using our ownvariation of the Swiss system.Graham has written about itand describes the winners ac-tion rather well, so heres histake on the day:

Its a four hour drive fromLower Hutt, where a lot of ourplaygroup lives, to Hwera, sowe only had some of our Hutt

players there, and we weremissing luminaries like Shar-ron, our number one rankedplayer going into the tourna-ment, and Savage_Rancor. Wehave one big annual 200 pointtournament each year, andone big 150 point one, andthis was the 150 point one.

I was actually fortunate thatI had a chance to defend mytitle; were blessed with a tenweek old baby who sleeps re-ally consistently at night, oth-

erwise I wouldnt have beenable to go. After some play-testing with my wife the nightbefore, I changed my mindfrom running a Bastila/JaqRand/Dash squad to givingthe new Windu a run. Rex was

just nailing everyone in play-testing, and Mace is a bunchof fun to play. My full squadwas:

65: Mace Windu, Legacy ofthe Light Side33: Captain Rex27: Ferus Olin9: R2-D2 Astromech Droid9: Ugnaughts * 36: Mouse Droids * 2

(149pts, 9 activations)

We had 10 players, with 5rounds of Swiss, then a nal.This is how it went down forme:

Geekdom reigns: Rich, Henko, Dave, Kezza, Bev, Andrew, Ian and HaweraCon cham-pion Graham (TheHutts) and his trophies. Absent is Bob (kfcs waiting for you) and Kurt.

photo by: Viv

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

11/28


P A G E 1 1

Round 1 - vs SithI started off against one of theweaker squads in the eld. Anewish player chucked to-gether a bunch of randomv-set Sith, including the Le-viathan, Traya, and Bandon.He only had ve activations,and no door control (!), so itwas pretty easy to get a cou-ple of rounds of free attacksoff before he even engaged,

and I won without even los-ing a piece. Im still trying toconvince him that the Sith

Leviathan isnt a good piece,but at least he knows to bringsome door control next time.This was the only game whereI won map roll, and the onlygame where my opponentdidnt run Dash.

Round 2 - vs RepublicI played almost a mirror match- the other player had Dash in-stead of Rex, and no doombot.

He out-activated me, but hehad to chop his Mace thoughsome mouse droids to get to

my Mace. After he boughthis Ferus adjacent to protectMace, my doombot towed myMace to take out his Ferus.Next round my Ferus survivedthree hits from his Mace, onlytaking 40 damage, then nextround my Mace took his onedown, so I had all my three at-tackers in good shape againsthis Dash. Ferus was adjacent

to R2 at that point, so wentDash hunting, while Rex andMace cleaned up the fodder.Playing against an unboostedDash in almost every game, Iwas nding that hes just notthat much of a threat againstMace - he needs 16 to hit anactivated Mace in cover, andMace normally has enoughforce points to try and deectanything that gets through hishigh defence.

Round 3 - vs RepublicI played the third Mace squadin the tournament - this onehad Dash and Rex as support.On Rattatak Arena, Dash andRex ended up both on the are-na oor, trying to snipe Macethrough the gaps in the rock.They were only two squaresapart from each other, so R2was able to tow Mace, Mace

ran 8 squares with a forcepoint, then got enough critsand urries to nish themboth off in a single activation.From there it was his Mace vsFerus, Mace, and Rex, so theycleaned him up without toomuch fuss.

Round 4 - vs NRThis was easily the closestmatch I had, against a New

Republic squad with Jacen,Jaina, and Dash. I forgot thatJacen had lightning, so I had

R2 and Rex hiding behindWindu. Jacen got a lightningoff on R2, Rex, and Mace, thenJaina nished off Rex. Fromthere, Mace, with some helpfrom Ferus, somehow man-aged to ght through Dash,Jaina, and Jacen, nally n-ishing off Jacen with 10HPremaining. The game endedwith Dodonna trying to snipe

the last 10 HP off Mace, thencreatively trying to kill my lastUgnaught; he needed a nineto hit. At this point he had aCamaasi and R7 in the turbolift in Gambit, and was aheadon points, so if Dodonna hadsucceded in killing the Ug-naught he would have won.But the Ugnaught survived,and I got a completely unde-served win where I was out-played but managed to stillsnatch victory.

Round 5 - vs ORI ended up playing against theexact team that I was think-ing of running; Old Republicwith Bastila, Rand, a JBM, andDash. I gambled by sendingR2 and Mace after Atton Rand,who was the biggest threatto Mace - Mace obliged witha crit on his second attack,

and although Atton made theavoid defeat save, he failed iton the urry. With the biggesthitter gone, it was relativelystraightforward for Rex, Mace,and Ferus to nish off the rest,although he did take downmy doombot, which made itthe second closest game ofpool play.

Here are some pics of the action, even though SWM isntactually the best sport of action-photography... (left)the rst round, followed by Bob and I in action; (above)things get serious after dinner (thats Dave V Graham inRound 4); and (below) the last round is contested.

Graham wraps it up on Page

25... see you there!

photosby:Kezza

exceptthephotoofKezza...

...t

hatwasbyDave

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

12/28

F O R C E P O W E R S

P A G E 8

The Vset artwork thus far (from top): therst Virtual set, Destiny of the Force (by

armoredgear7); Vset2, Renegades andRogues; the wildly unofcial Battle ofTheed artwork (they didnt vote for it, butkez did art for it anyways) for the 10-piecetheme-set; and the 12-piece EPIC set. (Allthe bottom three were done by kezza.)

began talking about how totake the game forward andthose conversations resultedin what we now know as theVirtual Sets or Vsets.

That is the brief history ofhow they came about. I dontprofess to know the full story,rather these are the things Iobserved as they happened.(I had a growing group ofplayers that had invested alot of time and money intothe game our Save11 group

how long it would be beforethe same pieces would getold to us.

But that was not the end, nosi-ree... that as it turns out was

just the beginning of an excit-ing new chapter in the SWMworld. Within a short timeof the WotC announcement,the folk at SWMgamers.com(spearheaded at that time byDean Miller) put their handsup to do something aboutthe game we all loved. They

May 2010 came along bring-ing us the event we all dread-ed: Wizards of the Coast(WotC), the manufacturers ofour beloved Star Wars Mini-atures game was ending theline. We had known about itfor a few months and May ar-rived leaving us a with a sourtaste in our mouths... wasMasters of the Force truelythe end? It wasnt even thatspectacular a set! We lookedat the collection of minis wehad amassed and wondered

so I was concerned aboutwhere we were going.) Fromthere Vset production beganand within time we saw setnumber one Destiny of theForce in December last year,followed by Renegades andRogues, Battle of Theed andthe Epic set (a full set, smallertheme set, and specialised setrespectively) in August this

year. February 2012 will seethe release ofVengeance andCantina Brawl. But this is not ahistory lesson were here tolook at what they are and howthey work.

How does it work?Very simply. The Vsets consistof new characters to add moredynamics to the game, as wellas including new versions of

some of our existing charac-ters. These new virtual charac-ters are represented by a statcard which can be printed outwhich looks and feels muchthe same as the WotC cards.Because these new charactersare made by volunteers fromthe community, they cantmake new minis, so they havesuggested proxy charactersthat you can use to play thenew character.

For example, I might want toplay the new Sora Bulq (Sepa-ratist) character. I can obtaina copy of the card or print itout that gives me the statsfor him and a list of his abili-ties and Force powers. I thenchoose a mini to representhim in the game. The sug-gestion is the Weequay Lead-er. I could use him, or the

Weequay thug... or even a jedicharacter with a lightsaberthat represents his likeness in

by kezzamachine

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

13/28


some way. The most impor-tant things to consider in thechoice of proxy are does itlook like the character, can itbe confused and does it havethe same base size as the sug-gested mini? If it is clear whoit is, then youre away.

Once youve got your headaround these simple steps,you are free to bring in as

many Vset characters intoyour squad as you like. All youneed is the card and a miniwith the same base size thathas been suggested. Piece ofcake. But there inclusion in thepost-WotC game has raisedeyebrows and questions. Ifyouve never seen them, orplayed them, you might bewondering about this weirdVset thing. Well, lemme an-swer a coupla questions and

see where it goes from there.

Are They Legal To Play?This is the rst consideration who says that these guysare legal and why should we

listen? Well, the SWMgamersfolk who created these virtualsets and maintain them arealso the ones that were large-ly responsible for runningthe national tournaments inthe US and maintaining theSWM rules not the WotCguys, who had handed it oversome time before. Sure, WotCstill were responsible for thegame, but they had broughtin experts to administer thegame at that level.

The game is still very muchalive in the US and the nation-al regional competitions thatrun every year are growing.The supposed death of thegame hasnt hindered it at all!The same folk who maintainedthe rules before May last yearare the same guys who run itnow and who oversee the Vset

production. Yep they are as

legal as any of the old pieces,as far as top level play is con-cerned. At the end of the day,whatever youre local group

runs is what is legal for you.Still, it should be noted thatthese pieces are subjected toa high quality control process in fact, one more rigorousand thorough than anythingWotC threw at it.

Who Makes Them?Here is the current process. Adesign team is formed, con-sisting of three or four topplayers who put their handup. (It changes per set too.)They take a list of the charac-ters, abilities and powers thatthe community want (lists aremade on both the BlooMilkand SWMgamers websites)and select a set-list of charac-ters from that list that mostlyt in with the theme of the set.Then comes a coupla monthsof heavy designing, beforethe characters are sent out to

playtesters.

Heres the cool thing any-one can be a playtester!Weve done it a coupla times

now and it is easy to be in-volved! You get sent a bunchof characters and then you re-port back on how they work.Where WotC playtested withthree or four folk in the ofceusing a few characters over aweek or two, the Vset charac-ters get hundreds of games,against myriads of differentscenarios by heaps of play-ers. Once this rigorous qual-ity control has been done,the new pieces are changedto suit the feedback, perhapseven re-tested, and then sentoff to be made into cards. Toanswer the who is quite sim-ple: we all make them. Easy asthat.

Does it take awayfrom the old game?No in fact, it enhances it. Inthe old game, pretty muchonly four factions (Republic,New Republic, Rebel and Em-

pire) could win a major tourna-ment, with the other factionsscarcely getting a look-in.Now, however, the lesser fac-tions have been brought intocontention by new pieceswhich balances the factions.Now you can bring a Sithsquad or any of the them to a tournament and havea chance to win. This also ap-plies to lesser characters too ones that were okay but havebeen superseded and neversaw play. Some of them havebeen revamped or accommo-dated in new characters thegame is simply getting bigger.

Does that mean youll have torun these new pieces to win?No, not at all. The old piecesare still as good as theyveever been. You might justsee some things youve never

seen before thats all.

Doesnt This Take AwayFrom Buying Pieces?If you are concerned aboutthe market for minis, the in-troduction of Vsets as far aswe have observed in our ownplaygroup does two things.Firstly, and I think most impor-tantly, it gives some of our lessserious collectors a chance tocompete in the game. Thereare a few of us that can bring

out the most expensive char-acters and run them, but forothers of us, we dont have themoney to buy the big charac-ters and so, we must expect tolose week-in, week-out. Now,thats not the case. A modestcollector doesnt have to getcompletely left behind (andtherefore lose interest in thegame). Secondly, however, itreinforces the market for the

game. For a start, it keeps

P A G E 1 3

STEP 1

1. Take Vset card

STEP 2

2. Add Recommended Mini...

STEP 3

3. Add both to squad...

STEP 4

4. ...and enjoy!

h o wt ou s e

v s e t si n 4e a s y

s t e p s

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

14/28


P A G E 1 4

us keen! Keen people buyproduct. People who thinkthe game is dead dont. Plus,now that you can actually geta decent Darth Revan (if youhavent seen the new Vsetone, he is awesome!), theresactually a reason to buy him.Sure you can use a proxybut a lot of us cant resist hav-ing the real deal.

Another interesting side-ef-

fect of Vsets is also customis-ing. More and more collectorsare now taking spare minis,hacking them apart and thenpiecing them back togetherwith a dab of paint as a newmini. This dedication requiresparts! As long as the Vsetscontinue, the need for prod-uct, whether for customs,proxies, or just for the contin-uing love of the game, will still

be there.

What Does NZ Do?Being the NZ pointman forthe distribution of ofcial Vsetcards from the US, I am prettysure I am aware of most folkin NZ who use the Vset char-acters, and they are by andlarge Save11 guys. And weswear by them! All our gamesuse the pieces and we are fullybehind the work of the SWM-gamers and BlooMilk guys

that continue to develop thisexciting lifeline that SWM hasbeen given. As for the rest ofNZ, part of our goals for thismag is to promote Vsets andthe modern game so that wecan see this game grow here.

I hope that you now under-stand Vsets! If not, ask anyquestions you can and Ill behappy to help!

[email protected]

So then, weve mentionedEPIC in our Vset talks... andyou might be thinking, whatthe heck-amonia is an EPIC?Good question.

Apart from simply advancingthe SWM game, the Gamersguys started thinking of dif-ferent formats they could in-troduce to keep things fresh.The past coupla years haveseen such great additions asTile Wars and Mystery Map,but they wanted to go bigger.Tied to this was the wish frommany players to have bigger,more powerful characters,

and soon EPIC was born.

Essentially, the 12 EPIC char-acters (ranging in cost from126 to 154 pts across all 10factions) are high-poweredcharacters that are consideredto be the truely epic characterfrom that faction. Their abili-ties and stats are such that ifyou stand them up in a stand-ard skirmish, theres virtuallyno competition for these guys

are uber!

However, theyre not de-signed for the standard skir-mish game, so you dont haveto worry about the potential

to break the game. Currentlythey are legal for the Epic Duoformat only which is: two char-acters, 1 being an epic, factionrules apply, which must be200pts or under. From there

it is the same as DynamicDuos - move 1 character eachphase, rinse and repeat. Theyalso great for fun skirmishes,or such things like the RoyalRumble (read on inAGF) andthere is plans on the horizonto include a new 500pt Epicformat in the oor rules for2012... keep a look out.

Weve shown you the Vader

example from the EPIC setand alongside of him youhave: Lord Hoth, Leader ofthe Army of Light (OR), DarthBane in Orbalisk Armor (Sith),The Phantom Menace andDarth Maul, Shadow Hunter(Separatist), Mace Windu,Master of the Order and Yoda,Legend of the Light Side (Re-public), Luke Skywalker, FIrstof the New Order (Rebel),Tarentatek (Fringe), Mara Jade

Skywalker, Galactic Hero (NewRepublic), Mandalore the First(Mandalorian) and CzulkangLah (Yuuzhan Vong). Down-load them and give em awhirl - they are a blast!

What i s EP IC?also by kezza...

Where do I get em?

Vset1: Destiny of the Force - http://www.swmgamers.com/page.php?35

Vset2: Renegades and Rogues(and Battle of Theed miniset) - http://www.swmgamers.com/page.php?76EPIC - http://www.swmgamers.com/page.php?77

Go to www.swmgamers.com and on the front page you will see Gamers Downloads. In there are links to the pages and .pdfles you require. Ive also listed the specic links below so there can be no confusion! Download them today!

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

15/28

P A G E 1 5


T e n

g a m ec h a n g e r sThe two reasons why Atris isa game changer are (1) shemakes Echani Handmaidensvery dangerous and (2) shehas Force Meditation.

Atris is usually played inEchani Handmaiden squads.She gives them good bo-nuses to attack and damage,and makes them cheaper.

These squads will often fea-ture someone like Bastila JM,Thrawn or Jabba CL to pumpthe Echanis up even more.You can potentially have themhitting for Double-Twin 30s at+15 attack.

Force Meditation is also ex-tremely useful. It increasesyour ability to hurt your oppo-nent and decreases their abil-ity to hurt you. If shes given

Renewal, you can have this ineffect for the entire skirmish.

Pre-Vset, the Children of YunYuuzhan had to either travelup the map in big groups dueto their ranged CEs and specialabilities, or commit sacrilegeand include Mouse Droids intheir squads (which couldnthelp with the SAs anyway).

Post Vset, however, the Yam-mosk brings them out of Tier

2 and into the competitiverealms as it makes not onlyCEs, but also those juicy SAsunlimited range. That, myfriends, is a spicy meatball.It gives the Yuuzhan Vonga power theyve needed forsome time.

It doesnt end there: the Yam-mosk can take a commandereffect from your opponentand replicate it for you. Imag-

ine Yuuzhan Vong with swap,or Evade... salivate now.

The separatists acquired a

couple of very good piecesand, although Sora Bulq isgreat especially with WhormLoathsome, Poggle would bethe most useful as he brings 2important things to the table.

Firstly cheap units, 2 pointGeonosian Drones equal lotsof activations. For 39 pointsyou get 16 characters. Youget good tempo control and

it also is usually enough towait out Bastila. Secondlyyou get bombs, bombs thatcan do at least do 20 damagewhen they blow up so that 39points, in characters, is rough-ly 300 damage.

Poggle does extremely well inlow point games, where thedamage output of explod-ing drones and their activa-tion count really shines, but is

just as effective in high pointgames.

With the introduction ofthe new Bastila Shan to theOld Republic, Star Wars Mini-atures had a new way of deal-ing with broken squads.

Her Advanced Battle Medita-tion not only cancels all en-emy commander effects for a

round but also gives all allies+10 damage for the same pe-riod. Both effects are amazingby themselves, but she canalso hold her own as a mid-point jedi. So many squadsare completely dependenton commander effects thesedays that Bastila can destroymost builds with just the 3force points for AdvancedBattle Meditation. Shes alsoa follower! For 33 points you

simply HAVE to use her in anyOld Republic build!

So, weve talked about whatthe Vset has done for thegame... what then are somepieces you might expect tosee?

Out of the 130 new gures

over the three sets, we havepicked a kind of Top 10 thatwe think have changed thegame for the better. This, how-ever, is a very uid Top 10 aspeople will have their favour-ites and, well, some pieces arestill waiting to be unearthedas game changers - thats partof the excitement! Anyhoo, ifyou play the modern game,these are some of the puppiesyoull see roaming around.

Enjoy,

by Dave by kez

by Mike

by Oli

When the fringe get a meatycharacter, all the other 9 fac-

tions potentially benet fromit. Celeste is an out-an-outmonster of a piece. By herselfshe has decent base stats andthe combo of Triple Attack,Jedi Hunter, Lightsaber Du-elist and Ambush make hera frightning prospect for anyopponent. Add to this ForceCloak - the ability to virtuallydisappear - and she is onetough cookie.

But were only just starting toget good. The new ability ofSith Alchemy changes the ball-game. Using this force powerallows you in some situationsto actually replace an oppo-nent piece with a Rakghoul (aendish savage beast which inturn creates more Rakghouls)which then immediately ben-et from her awesome CE.Ive lost to her and I know just

how scary she is...

also by kez

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

16/28


P A G E 1 6

Wookieepedia says that NenYim was a visionary scientistwho played a pivotal role inthe Yuuzhan Vong War. Thisis exactly how she is repre-sented in Star Wars minis.

The Shaper +10 special abilityis her most essential charac-teristic to provide all Vong al-lies within six squares an extra10 damage, creating a muchmore powerful squad. Nen

Yim also has Master Shaper,one ally gains +4 attack, +10damage and gains the De-molish special ability.

How about a Voxyn doubleattacking for potential 60damage each on a jedi at +23attack! Disruptive or Bastillacant ruin these affects eitheras neither are commander ef-fects. The introduction of NenYim has become almost com-pulsory to all Vong squads,understandable!

Atton Jaq Rand is a decentin-faction shooter for the OR.He always performs well if youprotect him. Atton lifts ORand Sith into far more equalcompetition with the strongerfactions.

He plays completely differ-ently in OR and Sith. Punchingwell above his weight in terms

of cost and HP. Fun comboscan be had with Exile, OR Sen-ator, Bastila in OR and ExarGhostie in Sith. He goes nicelywith at least two commandersfrom R&R, one being the Kla-toonian Captain.

Attons similar to Captain Rexin cost and damage output,but subject to more CEs asa follower, and he has ForcePoints for rerolls. Bastilla canstop the Rebels and NR fromevading his attacks.

Being a sith character can bepretty bad for ones health asvery few sith have any defen-sive abilitys but with his nicetwenty two defence, Lightsab-er Defence and Master of theForce two, Darth Revan, SithLord is a hard man to hit.

As for offence this guy has theability to move twelve squaresand unleash a tidy 20 pointsdamage with base fourteenattack twice (if using light-

saber assault) or 30 pointsdamage with 18 attack twiceif the target is un activated,and with master tactician thiswill be pretty easy to pull off.Then after all that you havethe choice to swap him out ofharms way and let one of thelackeys take the damage.

All up Revan sith lord bringsa lot of much needed love toone of the most over costedfactions around and for onlysixty two points.

One of the aims of the Vsetsis to boost existing piecestomake them playable. The Klaa-toinian Captain excels at this,giving Speed 8 and Evade toPilot followers (ie pieces with-out a Commander Effect whoeither have the Pilot specialability or Pilot in their name).

Previously the Republic pieceSaesee Tinn, Jedi Master was acompetent anti-melee piece,with Lightsaber Block and

Djem So Style Mastery, butwith no ranged defence hequickly became a pin-cushionagainst shooters. With theKlatooinian Captain, he gainsEvade, now making him a rea-sonable option for a competi-tive game.

The Klatooinian Captain alsosynergises well with the TwilekBlack Sun Vigo,meaning thepilots he gives evade to cangain access to Greater MobileAttack.

by Bev

by Ian

by Robinby GrahamDee just kept writing and blewout my 120 word limit... so he

gets two columns! -kez

Once Thrawns right handman, then eventually SupremeCommander of the ImperialFleet, Gilad Pellaeon was aleader through and through.His Star Wars Miniatures cardadequately reects this witha potent Commander Effectenabling the player to swapout an allied Imperial Com-mander on your squad with

an Imperial character of equalor lesser cost.

He is rightly considered a gamechanger of the V-set due tothis effect, plus Ysalamiri andall for a low 16 points. Beingable to customise your squadto that of your opponents, isa huge factor in its success,and can greatly increase yourchances of getting the upper

hand and that all importantvictory. With Bastila Shan,Jedi Master becoming more

by Deeand more popular amongsttournament winning squads,being able to remove a com-mander (which may have verylimited benets due to herForce ability) and replace itwith a more suitable piece, islike gold to an Imperial factionplayer. Also, as Bastilas abil-ity is a Force Power, Ysalamiriprovides another huge dis-ruption to Bastilla squads!

There are quite a few out-standing combinations to behad when using Admiral Gilad

Pellaeon. My favourite use ofhis Commander Effect is usingEmperor Palpatine, Sith Lordto bring in Order 66 clones,and then swapping him outfor a more benecial Com-mander Effect piece.

All up Pellaeon can be a veryversatile addition to any Im-perial squad and will haveyour opponents crying intotheir Jawa Juice, cursing hisname.

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

17/28


P A G E 1 7K

NOW

YOUR

ENE

M

YWelcome to Know Your En-emy. In this section, we planto examine each of Star WarMiniatures ten factions inTurn. This issue we take a lookat the Republic, the factionthat recently won the Save11tounament HweraCon. The

Republic has also been astrong force in ofcial tour-naments in the USA inthis years GenCon NationalChampionship, three of thetop 8 squads were Republic.

A lot of the discussion belowapplies to top level competi-tive play, but if you attendone of Save11's major tour-naments, you will nd that alot of the players use squadsthat are in fact top tier, andthat to compete youll haveto know how to deal with is-sues like door control andtempo control.

Why Choose A Faction?I had a conversation with an-other player recently, wherehe asked about the viabil-ity of running an all-Fringesquad. While the fringe has

some great pieces, and itspossible to run a squad thatsmostly comprised of fringepieces, each faction has somepowerful options, which willmake your otherwise fringesquad even stronger, andgive it a specic avour in theway that it plays. For instance,you could use the Imperialpiece, Admiral Gilad Pellae-on, in your otherwise fringe

squad, to give your piecesaccess to force immunity with

his Ysalamiri force bubble, sotheyre not affected by forcepowers.

So What Gives the Republicits Flavour?

Speed and MobilityThe characteristics that moststrongly dene the Repub-lic in the game of Star WarsMiniatures are speed andmobility. With R2-D2 Astro-mech Droid, they have argu-ably the most cost-effectivepiece in the game for 9points, R2-D2 has the towcable ability, where he canmove 12 squares while ena-bling an adjacent ally to

move simultaneously withhim. This enables tactics suchas towing a Republic piecein behind the enemy lines inorder to attack a key com-mander on the other team.If you plan to play Republicsquads, hes simply an essen-tial piece. In the words of oneBloomilk poster, there is lit-erally no reason that anyonewho is sane should build aRepublic squad without that

little SOB.

Adding to the Republicsmovement breaking capa-bilities is Captain Panaka,who in conjunction with MasAmedda, can swap two me-dium-based allies from any-where in the board. Often R2-D2, Captain Panaka, and Mas

Amedda are found togetherin Republic squads, and for40 points, the three of themenable Republic squads op-tions to hit and run all overthe board.

What theRepublic Doesnt HaveMost other factions in thegame have a piece that ei-ther allows or suppresses

tempo control; the ability toactivate less than the stand-ard two pieces at a time. Forinstance, the Rebel and NewRepublic piece General Do-donna allows the player tochoose between activatingone or two pieces at the startof each phase, while coun-tering this, the MandalorianCounter Intelligence Ofcersuppresses all Commander

Effects that affect activations.The advantage of tempo con-trol is that you can shufe afew Ugnaughts and MouseDroids until your opponenthas nished moving all theirpieces, then use all your at-tacking pieces to make unre-ciprocated attacks.

Galloping Attackand StrafeThis lack of tempo controlwould normally hurt the Re-public, but they compensate

for this by having severalpieces that can kill multiplepieces in one turn, eveningthe activation count. Yodaon Kybuck is able to gallop20 squares, and make an at-tack against each piece thathe passes on the way, whileAnakin Skywalker on STAP isable to twin attack each piecethat he ies over. Yoda on Ky-buck (also known as Yobuck)

has generally been the keypiece, as hes strong withoutcommander effects, but Ana-kin Skywalker on STAP (alsoknown as AniStap) has grad-ually gained strong supportpieces, like Qui-Gon Jinn, JediTrainer (who increases his at-tack by +4) and the Klatoo-inian Captain (who increaseshis speed).

Recent PiecesBefore the introduction ofthe recent v-sets, most ofRepublics most competitive

squads were based aroundYoda on Kybuck. Yoda onKybuck squads are still prob-ably the Republics strong-est options, but other squadswithout Yobuck have beengradually gaining in strength.Most controversial has beenthe intimidating beat stickMace Windu, Legacy of theLight Side, wholl we discussin more detail below, but

theyve also gained somestrong mid-level Jedi andsome cheap non-uniques likethe Spaarti Demolitionist andthe Naboo Trooper.

ByGraham(

theHutts)

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

18/28


P A G E 1 8

Top Republic Squads:Yoda on KybuckThe dominant Republicsquads over the last few yearshave been based around Yoda

on Kybuck. The most popularbuild is known as Skybuck,using General Skywalkerscommander effect of momen-tum (+4 attack and +10 dam-age against adjacent enemies)to boost Yoda on Kybuck andthe fringe piece Dash Ren-dar, Renegade Smuggler, intodeadly attacking weapons.

There are other squads thatalso build around Yoda onKybuck; this is another strongsquad with Yoda on Kybuckand swap, with completelydifferent secondary attackers,known as Ki-Blast.

Mid-Level Jedi

A lot of the most successfulsquads in Star Wars Minia-tures are built around a groupof medium threats for ex-ample the GenCon winningsquad this year was an OldRepublic squad where themain attackers are all around30 points.

The Republic also has a bunchof great pieces around the 30point mark; such squads areoften built around Qui-GonJinn, Jedi Trainers Command-er Effect of +4 Attack to allieswith a force rating. This squadfeatures several new pieces,and won a recent tournament;its known as Dont STAPBelievin, and like the abovesquad it was published by theBloomilk poster Weeks:

Non-Uniques

In a competitive scene wherethe Old Republics BastilaShan is cancelling Command-er Effects, and Yoda on Ky-buck and the Separatist Lanc-er can easily kill low hit pointpieces, the Republics Jedi areits strongest pieces, as theyremore self-sufcient withoutCommander Effects and canstand up to a few strafes fromthe Lancer.

The Republic do, however,have some strong command-ers for low cost non-uniques.These commanders includeQueen Amidala, who givesout rapport and mobile at-tack, Mon Mothma, who al-lows pieces to make an attackwhen they are defeated, andAdmiral Yularen, who givesshooters opportunist (+4 at-tack and +10 damage against

enemy pieces that have acti-vated).

Some strong pieces to buildaround include Gungan Ar-tillerists with Captain Tarpals,Senate Commandos with Cap-tain Argyus, Naboo Troop-ers and Pilots with CaptainPanaka of Theed, and SpaartiClone Trooper Demolitionistswith Plo Koon, Jedi Master.

51 Yoda on Kybuck

47 General Skywalker28 Dash Rendar, Renegade

Smuggler27 Lobot23 Captain Panaka9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid8 Mas Amedda4 Gran Raider3 Ugnaught Demolitionist

51 Yoda on Kybuck

34 Ki-Adi-Mundi, Jedi Master33 Captain Rex27 Ferus Olin23 Captain Panaka9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid8 Mas Amedda9 Rodian Brute x36 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2

36 Bardan Jusik

35 Anakin Skywalker on STAP33 Captain Rex30 Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi

Padawan24 Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Trainer18 Klatooinian Captain9 R2-D2, Astromech Droid6 Mouse Droid x26 Rodian Brute x23 Ugnaught Demolitionist

KNOW YOUR ENEMY cont .

The Mace Windu I ssueDespite all of their powerful Jedi in the movies, theRepublic have never had an effective beat-stick piecebefore Mace Windu, Legacy on the Light Side, releasedin the recent v-set Renegades and Rogues.

The piece has created controversy, with its ability toinict 60 damage and gain an extra attack on a criticalhit. As well as his damage output, with greater mobile

and triple attack, Mace also has Lightsaber Riposte,so he can hit back any melee piece that hits it, andForce Absorb, which helps him against other big beatsticks; if, for example, Lord Vader Lightsaber Assaultshim, Mace can Force Absorb the assault and negatethe damage. These abilities mean that Mace is greatagainst another melee pieces, but hes weak againstshooters he needs to spend 2 force points to have a50/50 chance of rolling a save to avoid damage againstranged attacks, so good shooters can rip through hisforce points quickly.

Squad Building with Mace WinduBecause Mace has only recently been released, playersare still working out the best squads to build aroundhim.

While its an option to play him with Yoda on Kybuckin a swap squad, it doesnt leave many points for astrong backup shooter and enough ller pieces likeUgnaughts and Rodian Brutes. Other options thathave been suggested include a tank squad; forgoingswap, and instead using Ferus Olin as a bodyguard,a Gungan Shieldbearer to help avoid ranged attacks,and Captain Rex and Republic Commando Darman as

backup shooters.

image from: Genndy Tartakovskys Star Wars: Clone Wars

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

19/28


P A G E 1 9The Mace W indu I ssue

Is the new

Mace Windu Too Strong?Mace Windu, Legacy of theLight Side gave the Republicsomething they didnt havepreviously, a big beatstick ca-pable of moving and puttingout 120 damage in a round.

Until recently, the only toptier pieces capable of thiswere Mara Jade, Jedi, for NewRepublic, and Lord Vader for

the Imperials. While the newMace is strong, its debat-able whether hes as strongas Lord Vader and Mara Jade.Lord Vader, with Overwhelm-ing Force, and Mara Jade withher non-melee attack, haveways of getting around meleedefences like lightsaber blockand parry. Also, while LordVader and Mara Jade Jedi canoutput 120 points of damagerelatively reliably, Windus

damage output is reliant onrolling 17s, 18s, 19s, and 20sfor the big damage criticalhits.

Additionally, the Republicdoesnt have access to thetempo control and initiativecontrol that other factionshave. For instance, Lord Vaderwith the help of Admiral Ozzelcan wait until the other player

has nished moving all his

pieces, then swap in and pilemasses of damage on a piece.Thrawn, with Master Tactician,should win initiative, and Vad-er can either swap to safetyor keep attacking. Becausethe Republic doesnt have atempo control piece or aninitiative control piece, Windudoesnt have these advantag-es that help some of the other

major beat-sticks. Althoughhe can utilise R2-D2 to deepstrike and take out a key en-emy shooter or commander,hes by and large a piece thatyou throw into the fray, crossyour ngers, and hope for thebest. On his day he can rip astrong squad to pieces, but ona bad day he can go a wholegame without rolling a criticalhit or get ripped apart quicklyby shooters.

Counters to MaceIf Mace is dominating your lo-cal play scene, here are somesuggestions to try that shouldbe able to beat him:

i. A bunch of low cost shoot-ers. A good build could be abunch of Twilek Black Sun Vi-gos in an Imperial build withXizor and Imperial Governor

Tarkin. If you spread them

out, Mace can only kill one atime, and theyve got a goodchance of shooting him topieces before he can take outall of them.

ii. Bringing in a Jawa Scav-enger with Lobot. The JawaScavenger, with accurate shotand ion gun, can take out R2-

D2, and take away a lot ofMaces mobility.

iii. Vong a bunch of Yu-uzhan Vong Jedi Huntersor an amped up WarmasterNas Choka, should be ableto clean up Mace most of thetime. Because theyre ForceImmune, he cant reroll his at-tacks against them or ripostetheir attacks.

iv. Droids are immune to hiscritical hits, so are able to sur-vive better against him. Du-rge, Jedi Hunter and SaeseeTiin Jedi Master are also im-mune to critical hits.

v. Ysalamiri an imperialsquad with Admiral Pallaeonor Grand Admiral Thrawn canget Mace inside a force bub-ble, taking away his ability to

Riposte, roll Lightsaber Re-ect saves, or reroll hits.

vi. Force Suppression twopieces are coming out inthe upcoming v-set with thenew force ability Force Sup-pression which reads Enemycharacters within 6 squaresmust spend one extra Forcepoint each time they spendForce points. This will crampMaces style, as he will have

to spend three force points

every time he wants to make alightsaber reect or two forcepoints whenever he wants totry to reroll a hit.

vii. Direct Damage unlessyoure adjacent to him, Mace

cant do anything about forcelightning, ame thrower, forcepush, or other forms of directdamage. A Rebel force pushsquad, for instance, couldcause him a lot of problems.

Mace at HweraConMace squads performed verywell at HweraCon 2011, withthe three Mace squads nish-ing 1st, 3rd, and 5th. In my

opinion, Mace is an extremelystrong piece at 150 points, ashis base stats and force pow-ers are strong enough thathe can function well withoutany support. Additionally, alot of the counter squads list-ed above work better at 200points than at 150 points, so Iexpect hell be a force at nextyears HweraCon too. I think,however, there are plenty

of ways to beat him at 200points itll be interesting tosee how he goes in Save11supcoming 200 point gamesand in the big tournamentsin the United States next year.Hes a blast to play, as its funtrying to roll 60 point criticalhits. But most experts are stillpicking that Yoda on Kybuck,Captain Panaka, Mas Amedda,and R2-D2 Astromech Droidwill continue to be the key

pieces for the Republic.

The Vset Mace: His stat card (thats a spicy meatball!)and the recommended mini. Dont mess wi Samue-L...

C O D C

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

20/28

C O M M A N D E R E F F E C T S

P A G E 2 0

Okay, so the discussion cameup lately about what fringepieces are KEY for when aplayer is just starting out ourmagical world of SWM, andthere was some mighty in-tense discussion (a post wasmade on Bloomilk) whichproduced some considerablefeedback to be used by yourstruly. So, in the Star Warsworld, which pieces are key?Which are great fun?

Lets start with the essentials,pieces you will ALWAYS use.When you are playing, youshould think of these, as soonas you start.

Mouse DroidUgnaught Demolitionist

R7 Astromech DroidRodian BruteLobotCaamasi NobleJarael

All of these characters arecheap, easy to pick up, andyou will use all the time. As ayoung player, the best thingyou could ever have in this

game is OPTIONS. Lobotgives you options with re-inforcements, you can havelots of little Mouse Droids orUgnaughts or Rodian Brutesrunning around giving youoptions, Caamasi lets youhave cover wherever you are,nice option to have. Jaraelcan be in about any squad,which is good to have also.

Options let you play the gamelots of different ways, and g-ure out how you like to playthe game. Defensively, of-fensively, mix of both, takegames odd ways, lookingfor counterattack, etc, are allways of playing, plus others ifyou can think of them. Everyplayer has different playing

styles that they enjoy.

Some other characters thatare key when starting yourSWM journey, are these:

Czerka ScientistJawa ScavengerWhipid TrackerKel Dor Bounty HunterTwilek Black Sun Vigo

These characters are essen-tial, and you need them whenyou start out so you can runthem, and you run them justbecause you can. Czerka givestwin attack to characters with10 damage, so Whipid, KelDor, Jawa, Twilek, all have10 damage. It is so enjoyabletrying to hide a Czerka whilstshooting people with twin. Itsa great synergy teacher, asyou get twin within 6 squares,and movement teacher also,as you have to keep theCzerka safe to gain twin.

All of these characters arekey for a new player of StarWars Minis, just for them toenjoy themselves, if not foranything else. SWM is creat-

ed for that very purpose, andthese characters do a great

job. CHASE ME

I like to throw out the $30Challenge whenever I can.What that means is youvegot $30NZ to spend on min-is - what do you buy? I am arm believer that you can getyourself a decent lil army foras little as that... and thatsonly made easier now thatVsets are on the scene!

Anyhoo, $30NZ in todaysexchange rate equals about$23US. Take off about $3for freight and I have about$20US to spend at Cool-StuffInc (one ofourfavouriteonline SWM stores). $20USyou will nd is not a greatdeal to spend on minis and itevaporates before you evenreally get going. However, to-

days challenge is to buy fromAarons list next door. Lets doit.

Im thinking that Im buyingfor someone who has vir-tually nothing - hence whythey need this stuff - or thattheyve started collectingand have a few pieces froma given faction and need tobolster that with this lot ofFringe extras.

If we start with Aarons musthaves, the Mice are at $3.99,Ugnaughts $0.69, R7s $1.75and the Rodian Brutes weighin at $0.49. Caamasis arent instock at the mo but I remem-ber them to be about $0.35- cheap as chips - and thatleaves us wi Jarael for $4.99and Lobot at $1.49. *Phew!*The second lot are cheaperso thats a good place to start.Id weigh that all up lookingsomething like this:

Mouse Droid x2 = $7.98Rodian Brute x4 = $1.96R7 Astromech x2 = $3.50TwilekBlackSunVigo= 0.89Czerka Scientist = $0.69Caamasi Noble x2 $0.70KelDorBountyHunter=$0.35

Uggie Demolition x3= $2.07Lobot = $1.49Jawa Scavenger = $0.49

Total = $20.12

That puts us a fraction overour $20 but I think is the bestmix from Aarons list for thedollars. Its not stellar andmany folk have far more thanthis (10 Mouse Droids any-one?) but this is a great start-ing point.

SWM Essentialsby Aaron (Sharron) by kezzamachine

The only glaring omission isour good friend Jarael and itbreaks my heart not to haveher there, especially since shegives you so much for vebucks. However, youll seechampionship squads withouther, but not many that wontinclude Mouse Droids, R7sand Uggies. This also givesyou Lobot and good rein-forcements.

As an option, if you wantedto get Jarael and go offensive,you could go for this instead:

Mouse Droid x2 = $7.98Rodian Brute x4 = $1.96Caamasi Noble x2 $0.70Uggie Demolition x3= $2.07Echani Handmaiden x2 $2.50

Jarael = $4.99

Total = $20.20

Yeah... Aaron forgot the Echa-ni! Shes inexpensive and goesnicely wi Atris, plus you getJarael and the must haves ofthe Mice and Uggies althoughyou miss out on the R7s andLobot n friends. Oh well,what can ya do.

C O M M D CM l f i i k i

D

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

21/28


P A G E 1 3

Hello and welcome to therst squad article for the rstmagazine dedicated to our

beautiful game, Star WarsMiniatures, in our perhapseven more beautiful country,NEW ZEALAND! My name isOliver, and I go by Darth Oon Bloomilk. Im sure youllnd out more about me lateron if you feel like stalking meenough. Anyway, better geton with the article.

The squad Ive got here seemsto be innovative; people on

Bloomilk thought so anyway.Heres the original squad fromwhen I created it in May 2010:

If you just cant see the syn-ergy here, prepare to beamazed/confused! The mainpoint of the squad is that Leiagives the Rancors a save of16 to return to play with alldamage removed from them.Yoda is simply a force bat-tery, giving them access to hisforce points if theirs run out.Rieekan gives them Evadeto go with their Parry, which

means they can avoid bothmelee and ranged attacks.

My personal favourite trick isthat Anakin gives them Met-tle. This means that each timea Rancor fails a save, if it re-rolls with a force point it gains+4 to that roll. To top it all off,Jabba gives them Cunning At-tack to improve their damageoutput and attack. Essentially,you are looking at two bigbeats that have a very long

life expectancy who also haveRegeneration! Every roundthey dont move, you can re-move 10 damage from them.Choice.

There are some changes youcan make to this squad to suitthe situation. For example, ifyou feel you need more mobil-ity you can take out Jabba andthe Jawa and put in a TwilekBlack Sun Vigo. He gives them

Greater Mobile Attack so theRancors can use their TripleAttack and still move up to 8squares. You can also take outthe R7 and youd have spacefor another mouse droid andtwo Ugnaught Demolitionists.

If youre blessed with havingthree Felcors, you could playthem all together with justLeia and Anakin with ller and

have a ball! Alternatively youcan play with just one Felcorand use the remaining 52points for more activations.You could add commandos,

jedi, door control, or justabout anything else! Its reallyup to you.

By Oliver (Darth O)

S Q U A DM A G I C

The FelcorsThat Just Dont Die

104 Felucian Warrior on

Rancor (x2)20 Yoda, Force Spirit19 Princess Leia, Hoth

Commander15 Jabba, Crime Lord14 General Rieekan12 Anakin Skywalker,

Force Spirit8 R7 Astromech Droid5 Jawa3 Mouse Droid

(200pts. 10 activations)

This is the most recent photo we have of Darth O... here seen takingthe local public transport option into the Napier (NZ) township...

C O M M A N D E R E F F E C T St t l f h d b ) IF h i th i t ll t t h th i ht?

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

22/28


P A G E 2 2

A

GFA

LTERNATIV

E

G

AME

FORM

ATS

Otherwise known simplyas a Rumble, this is one ofthe many whacky alterna-tive game formats we playhere in Hwera. These non-standard games have helpedthe Hwera group maintainenough Momentum to playStar Wars minis every weekfor around 3 years now. Idont know whetherits something in thewater, the product ofan over-active mindor the fact theresnot much else todo in Hwera, butit seems every fewweeks Bevan (thehead of the Hweragroup) turns up withanother idea that we

manage to turn intoa workable and fungame. It also helpsthat we consistentlyhave four players (nomore... no less), giv-ing us an incentive to inventgroup games that we playaround a single map whilewe eat junk food, talk trashand have a great time withStar Wars minis... the otherbeautiful game. As a matterof fact, interest in the Rumblehas even spread as far as the

United States after Kez intro-duced them to it in SWMini-verse Podcast 38, which waslater reviewed in Podcast 42.(Over there its being calledBattle Royale)

Game FormatThe game is designed to be

reminiscent of theRoyal Rum-

ble from the old skool WWFwrestling competition. It isplayed on a 7 x 7 square grid.We usually use the custommap which Bobby (refer pg.28for more) made to look justlike a wrestling ring.

First, players agree on a points

total for each persons squad.This can vary depending onthe number of players (moreplayers = fewer points) orthe time available (less time= fewer points). As a rule ofthumb, 200 points makes fora decent game. Our minisnights start at 7 pm and usu-ally nish around 10 pm.Once you take out time for

catching up on things at thestart of the night, decidingwhich game to play, selectingsquads and discussing thegame at the end of the night,we have a little over 2 hoursof solid playing time. So thisis how much time you shouldallow for if you have 4 peopleplaying a 200-point Rumble.

Squad Selection

There is no limit on thenumber of charactersa player can have intheir squad. Thereare no faction ruleseither. Commandereffects, however, donot cross factions.They only affectcharacters withintheir own faction andFringe characters. Soyou can run Darth

Vader, Legacy of theForce in the samesquad as Luke Sky-walker of Dagobahto see if they reallycould have ruled the

galaxy as father and son. Butyou cannot use Vaders CE togive Luke an extra attack. Youcould, however have includedan Imperial character such asArica in the same squad, us-

ing Vader to give her an extraattack while within 6 squares(which she probably would

The Royal RumbleBy Dave

be) IF she was in the ring atthe same time as Vader (whichshe may or may not be).

The ruling about Unique char-acters does not apply in thisgame, either. This means forexample that you could havetwo Darth Vaders in yoursquad.

we all trust each other, right?In countless Royal Rumblegames, I have never seen acard damaged, lost, burned,ripped or cunningly altered toinclude the Tactician -4 ability.

Once the dealer has every-ones cards, then withoutlooking at them they place the

We have not used Epic char-acters in a Rumble yet, but ifyou wanted to include themyou could make a ruling thateach player is allowed oneEpic character in their squad.You probably wouldnt beable to t more than one Epiccharacter in a squad and still

have a reasonable points limit.

Once you have selected yoursquad, pass your cards to thenominated dealer withoutshowing anyone what they are.When they played the Rumblefor the rst time in the UnitedStates, this part of the gamecaused some consternation(see SWMiniverse Podcast 42).People were reluctant to handtheir cards over to someoneelse. Fortunately, weve neverhad that problem here. Hey,

cards in a pile under a pieceof paper. They then shufethem as best they can, usu-ally by mixing them aroundon the table underneath thepaper before gathering themall back up into a pile. Thecards stay in that pile, under-neath the paper, until they are

drawn out.

GameplayThe dealer takes the rst cardfrom the top of the pile andreveals it. It is then given towhoever owns it. Occasionallythere will be two players withthe same character in theirsquad. When this happens, itis often possible to identifywhose card it is (for example,

if one player has their cards

Nek minnit...

art by: Dave

C O M M A N D E R E F F E C T Sacte in the ing the oll fo

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

23/28


P A G E 2 3

in sleeves and the other doesnot). If it cannot be identied,each of the players concernedrolls a D20. The card is then

used by the player with thelowest roll.

The player who owns the cardplaces the appropriate g-ure on the map, adjacent toat least one edge. It has justentered the ring. That charac-ter is alone in the ring for therst round, during which theplayer may move it as well asusing Force Renewal or any-thing else the character may

do. For example, they coulduse the Force Weapon ability

if they have it. Obviously thereis no need to roll for Initiativeyet, because there is only oneplayer with a character in the

ring.

At the end of the rst roundanother card is drawn. Theplayer who owns this char-acter places it as describedabove. If one lucky player nowhas two characters in the ringsimultaneously, they proceedas described above. Theyhave another chance to moveinto position, and perhapsgain another valuable Force

Point from Force Renewal. Iftwo players each have a char-

acter in the ring, they roll forInitiative and play begins as itwould for a standard game. Atthe end of the round the nextcard is drawn, and so on andso on.

WinningQuite simple, really. The lastcharacter standing once allcards have been drawn and all

opponents have been defeat-ed wins the game. There is nogambit, and there is no timelimit. If you are short on time,pick a low points total beforeyou begin! Ties are possibleif two or more characters aredefeated at the same time (forexample as a result of DjemSo Style or Thought Bomb).

Hints on

Squad SelectionChoose characters that will beable to survive on their own,because chances are they willhave to do so for at least around or two. Melee piecesfeature heavily in our Rum-bles. Shooters can have a bigimpact on the game, but theyneed to have a decent amountof hit points. Echani Hand-maiden? Probably not. IG-88,

Assassin Droid? Oh, yes.

You should not build a Rumblesquad which is based aroundCommander Effects. Youwould be very lucky indeed tohave your commander comeout at the right moment tohelp the rest of your squad.There are some charactersthat can survive a Rumble andalso have helpful CEs (such asKyle Katarn, Combat Instruc-

tor). But the fact that mostsquads contain characters

prised how much of a mentalgame this is (in more waysthan one).

Also, the luck of the draw hasa huge part to play in a Rum-ble. It may initially seem likea good thing to have a cou-ple of your characters comeout rst before anyone else isin the ring. It means that you

can despatch whoever comesin against you more easily. Butbecause the winner is the lastcharacter standing, it is usu-ally more of an advantage tohave your characters drawnlater in the game.

I hope youve enjoyed readingthis. I look forward to hear-ing stories about your ownRumbles. Remember, this is a

great go-to game if you havemore than 2 people wantingto play, or if you want a full-on scrap without too muchstrategy, synergies or CEs.

In the issues to come Ill belling you in on some of ourother alternative game for-mats, including Lightning, GasChamber, Random Roomsand more. Watch this space(lane)!

from several factions meansthat CEs are not very effective.So if General Rieekan turns upin the ring, he better have hisblaster charged and his life in-surance up to date.

The Rumble is a great way totest out big pieces you arenot familiar with, or ones youwould never use in a stand-ard game. Are you the kind ofplayer who always walks onthe Light Side of the Force?Try Lumiya, the Dark Ladyand see how much fun MeleeReach 3 can be! Are you thekind of player who runs GG-DAC and 20 droids? Try outDarth Maul, Sith Inltrator

and see if you want to t himinto your competitive squads.With the advent of V-Sets, weall have access to some reallygood characters from factionswe may not even own, whichcan be a lot of fun in a Rum-ble.

Hints on GameplayThe most important hint Ihave on gameplay is to have

fun! This game is something alittle different, and a lot light-

hearted. Consider it a breakfrom all the planning, strate-gising and deliberating whichgoes into a standard game.You will nd out for yourselfwhat works in the ring andwhat doesnt.

Being a group game and afree-for-all, there are a lotof possibilities for alliances.We gravitate towards a Kill-the-Leader kind of gameplay.This means that if one personis seen as having a really biglead, the rest of us will gen-erally gang up on them! Thisevens things out a bit, andalso means that the playerswho are not doing so well on

the night will have a betterchance, so we all stay in thegame togetherlonger. Keep inmind, though,that these alli-ances tend tobe very tenu-ous. Dont besurprised if yourbuddy in oneround wins Ini-

tiative and Dou-ble-Twins you in the next. Allpart of the fun... youd be sur-

photosby:Dave

F L A V O U R T E X TH o w m a n y p i e c e s d o y o u

7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

24/28

F L A V O U R T E X T

P A G E 2 4

Graham

TheHutts

Nae Nae, Lower Hutt

Male, 32 years old

I look after my wife and my

baby daughter, I work fora non-prot organisation,and I'm involved in my localChurch.

I started playing casually with-kezzamachine a few years ago.About a year and a half ago Igot sick of losing all the timeto Kerry, Aaron, and Robin -my best piece at the time wasRebel Storm Obi-Wan Kenobi

- and I won a FlObi at a tour-nament, so I started tracking-down some Republic piecesto go with him.

Captain Rexs match-winning critical hit onLukes Snowspeeder at theHaweraCon 2010 nal wasexciting.

General Skywalker.

Rhen Var Ice Citadel.

I n t r o d u c i n g

B l o o m i l k /

S W M g a m e r s

h a n d l e

W h e r e i s h o m e ?

T e l l u s a b o u t

y o u i n 2 0 w o r d s

W h a t d o y o u d o

w h e n y o u r e N O T

p l a y i n g S W M ?

W h e n d i d y o u

s t a r t p l a y i n g

S W M ( a n d h o w ) ?

F a v o u r i t e S W M

m o m e n t ?

F a v o u r i t e M i n i ?

F a v o u r i t e M a p ?

I dont actually have that many com-pared to most ofthe other high rankedNZ players - less than 200.

Six. Im not so interested in the fragile,shooty-type factions.

Republic was my rst faction, and still myfavourite. I like how you can often con-trol a game from start to nish with allthe swapping, towing, and body guard-ing options.

Maybe 6 or 7. Im not so into the col-

lecting part, as it interferes with anotherhobby of mine (paying off the mort-gage), but Im generally a competitiveperson and like the tournaments and theranking system. When it comes down toit, Star Wars Miniatures is based aroundcalculating statistics and probabilities,and guring out what beats what (like agiant game of rock, scissors, and paper),and I really enjoy guring these thingsout. I also like hanging out in a male en-vironment, as I work in a very female en-

vironment - sometimes I can go an entireMonday-Friday without seeing anotherman..

Use door control. Even including just oneUgnaught Demolitionist can help youavoid one-sided games where you haveno chance. Also, until you know whatyoure doing, use Bloomilk to look upwhat squads and combinations of pieceswork together, rather than just chucking

random pieces together as a squad veminutes before a game.

H o w m a n y p i e c e s d o y o u

o w n ?

H o w m a n y f a c t i o n s c o u l d

y o u r u n c o m p e t i t i v e l y ?

w h A T I S Y O U R F A V O U R I T EF A C T I O N ?

H o w o b s e s s e d a r e y o u

w i t h S W M ? ( 1 0 b e i n g

k e z z a a n d 0 b e i n g n o t

i n t e r e s t e d ) :

W h a t a r e y o u r S W M t i p s

t o o t h e r p l a y e r s ?

Lets take the opportunity to meet one of

those wacky Save11 folks, eh? Well kick it offwi the current Save11 #1, Graham!

Dave, who came up with mostofGraham, Republic General,had this to say:I see Graham as the tactical,thinking General who directshis troops to where they cancause the most damage andwin the battle, even if it meanslosing a few of them in theprocess.

We all know he loves to useDoombot, Rex and Yobuck soI have given him Synergy forRex (giving Graham a reallygood attack) and what I thinkis a cool ability in KybuckWrangler to enable Yobuckto get out of tricky situations.I thought Rapport wouldhave been a bit much... letsnot make it too easy for him!Board-wide swapping in the

Republic is a scary conceptfor those coming up against

As well as asking Graham about himself, the Save11 guyspitched in to turn him into a Virtual piece. So, here it is!

it, but I thought it would com-plement Grahams style ofplay.

I have suggested makinghim 41 points (although I re-ally have no idea) to make itexpensive enough to get theswapping in there. At least wewouldnt see a Yobuck swap

squad in a 100 point game.

Bob also chipped in: It shouldbe: Name: Graham, Confusedabout Metal and Alternative...hahaha sorry bro I couldn't re-sist.

I also gave him Tenacious G,referring to his ability on abasketball court to tear to-wards an opponent and scarethe living daylights out of him.

-kez


7/31/2019 Save 11 Episode 01

25/28


T h e T a l e o f t h e T a p e

P A G E 2 5

Final - vs New RepublicI had to replay the toughestmatchup of pool play. Thistime, Jaina charged in and put60 on my Rex. On a won ini-tiative, she took out Rex andDoombot, but problematical-ly for her, she took 80 pointsof AoOs from Mace getting

to Rex, so she had to retreatback to gambit. This time, Ibased Jacen with Mace so hecouldn't lightning me, plusI also remembered to forceabsorb parry rerolls o

save 11 episode 01

Documents